Bhikkhus, if you develop and make much this one thing, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction. What is it? It is recollecting the Enlightened One. If this single thing is recollected and made much, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction.Anguttara-Nikaya: Ekanipata: Ekadhammapali: PañhamavaggaBuddhanussatiSCVSMVMMBS

Great photo, Tilt.I think I'll be spending the day with Quinn exploring the innards of a cave complex not far from here, possibly via a rope and some head torches or two.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Ben wrote:Great photo, Tilt.I think I'll be spending the day with Quinn exploring the innards of a cave complex not far from here, possibly via a rope and some head torches or two.

Sounds like fun, but do be careful.

We will, thanks. The caves are home to a cave spider that give a nasty bight.And its someone's birthday adventure.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Great photo, Tilt.I think I'll be spending the day with Quinn exploring the innards of a cave complex not far from here, possibly via a rope and some head torches or two.

Don't forget the Atanatiya Sutta and metta.... never know what little green men are inside....

Bhikkhus, if you develop and make much this one thing, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction. What is it? It is recollecting the Enlightened One. If this single thing is recollected and made much, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction.Anguttara-Nikaya: Ekanipata: Ekadhammapali: PañhamavaggaBuddhanussatiSCVSMVMMBS

Now I'm curious: why not? I could read wiki and see if I can figure out the answer, but that article's too long.

Of course the history of Ireland is long, complicated, and difficult. A wreath of snakes is not a celebration of a Christian missionary who according to legend drove out of the island all the snakes. And the snake is, of course, in its Christian mythos a symbol of the devil and in this context it is also a symbol of the druidic religion of the Ireland, which according to legend Patrick destroyed. The reality, needless to say, is not the legend. The Christianization of Ireland took very much longer than Saint P's life time, and the Roman Catholicizing of Irish Christianity took even longer, and then add to that ugly and often brutal occupation of Ireland by the English . . . . Fortunately, the recent exposures of wide spread and long term Catholic Church abuses in Ireland has done much to undermine the grip that church has on the Irish culture and politics.

Be that as it may, a wreath of snakes is not a celebration of either Patrick or his religion. It is, rather, a nod to the pagan Irish forefathers and foremothers whose influences still add some color to a very rich palette.

tiltbillings wrote:Be that as it may, a wreath of snakes is not a celebration of either Patrick or his religion. It is, rather, a nod to the pagan Irish forefathers and foremothers whose influences still add some color to a very rich palette.

Thanks for the explanation and the song, Tilt. I wikied about the Irish language, and was interested to see that its rate of daily use has risen some in the last six years. Although it's a bummer about it being driven to the point of decimation in the first place. The loss of languages in the world strikes me as loss of human wonder, to be honest.